Improvement in billiard-table cushions



l. '55. CA

I Billiard-Table Cushions N0. 142,435. PatentedSeptember2,1873.

WI T/VESSES INVE/W'UR Y impact of the balls.

# TATES PATENT CFFIGE.

Jonn n. GAME, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN BlLLlAR'D-TABLE CUSHIONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,435, dated September 2, 1873; application filed May 13, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN E. GAME, of Boston, Suffolk county, State of Massachusetts,

- cation:

The main object of this invention, as of many other prior inventions heretofore patented, is to construct the cushion of billiard-tables so as to prevent any substantial or practical embedment of the balls therein, and, at the same time, not detract materially from its necessary properties of reaction under the impact of the balls, thus, as is well known, insuring a more accurate and perfect deflection of the balls by the cushions. For this object among other constructions the cushions have'been provided with a metallic spring-band or wire, located in some cases on and against the impact face of the cushion, and in other cases within the body of the rubber of which the cushion was made,

and by such constructions the object sought has been, to a greater or less extent, secured. Use, however, has demonstratedthat, while such bands or wires are practically the best resistant to the embedment of the ball, with a proper preservation of elasticity to the cushion, yet, owing, to the imperfect union heretofore made betweenth'ernetallic wire or band and the rubber, the wire or band soon loosens in, or it opens from, the rubber, or the rubber loosens about or opens from it, causing not only a grinding away and deterioration of the rubber, but, also, as the said separation of the rubber and metallic wire or band necessarily does not occur evenly at all points of the cushion, a proportionate uneven and imperfect elastic action of the cushion, at different points of its length. The object, therefore, of this invention is to substantially and and practically unite the metallic wire or band and the rubber, or sufficiently so, as in the use of the cushion, to prevent their separation, and thus the resulting deterioration of the cushion and its consequent inaccuracy in action under the This object I accomplish by the use, within the rubber body of a billiard-cushion, of a metallic band or wire that, from end to end, is provided with awoven This has such a fabric casing or covering.

close and tight contact upon the wire or band as, under any practical strain between the two-that is, either by a lengthwise pull upon the wire, band, or'casing, or upon both wire and easing, by a lateral pull, or by a wrenching or twisting of easing wire or band, or both-to substantially prevent the separation of the metal wire or band from its casin g, thereby preventing, through the union of the rubber and. the woven casing, the separation of the wire or band from the rubber.

In the accompanying plate of drawings a billiard-cushion constructed according to the present invention is shown, Figure 1 being a vertical cross-section, and Fig. 2 a face view, of a metallic band cased or covered witha woven fabric.

A in the drawings represents a billiard-cushion for billiard-tables, which cushion may be made of India rubber in any of its ordinary elastic compounds, and as to shape of the general outline shown, or otherwise, as is now common for billiard-cushions, the shape, compound, and mode of attachment to the table forming no part of this invention. a is a band made of spring-steel or of any other suitable spring metal, and Da woven fibrous casing or covering to band (6. This fibrous casing vb tightly and closely fits and hugs the-band, so

that, under any practical strain, the band will not move in the casing, and the casing will not slip or move upon the band, and one mode of securing this close fit and hug of the fibrous casing on the band is to weave the casingdirectly on the band in any of the well-known looms or machinesadapted for such weaving.

In the manufacture of the cushion A the compound band a b (metal a and woven case b) is to be entirely surrounded by rubber, and it is to be along the length of and just within the cushion in a line parallel to its face B, against which, in the use of the table, the balls strike. v the compound band a bis obtained by suitably securin git in the rubber-cushion mold before vulcanization; and, obviously, by vulcanizing the rubber, a union is made between it and the woven casing of suflicient strength to practicall y resist all strains at such line of joint resulting from the impact of the balls on the The location, as above stated, of

cushion-face B, the woven casing under such strains being held to the band by its tight and close fit and hug thereof herein above stated.

A cushion constructed as herein described obviously not only prevents the embedment Having thus described my invention, I do not claim, broadly, the use of a metal band, a, in a rubber billiard-cushion but What I do claim as my invention is An India-rubber billiard-cushion constructed with an embedded spring-band, a, having woven about it a tight and close fitting fibrous casing or covering, 1), all substantially as described,for the purpose specified. J OHL E. CAME.

Witnesses:

ALBERT W. BROWN, EDWIN W. BROWN. 

